Prevalence and knowledge of classical cardiovascular disease risk factors among patients with diabetes

Background: The prevalence of diabetes is increasing annually, and diabetes is associated with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Diabetes can significantly increase the risk of developing coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension or ischemia of the lower limbs. Furthermore, the presence of other risk factors including; being overweight or obesity, having hypertension, having excessive stress or having low levels of physical activity also contribute to this risk as well as contributing to disease progression and mortality among patients. Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease among patients with diabetes, and to assess their knowledge in this regard. Material and methods: In total, 202 patients (121 females, 81 males) aged 25–74 (mean age = 58.7) were assessed in this study, from a Polish primary care setting. Inclusion criteria included a confirmed diagnosis of diabetes and that patients had given informed consent to participate in the study. We utilized a questionnaire to assess knowledge in areas related to cardiovascular disease prevention including; physical activity, diet and lifestyle. For statistical analysis Statistica v.10.0 was used. Results: The most common cardiovascular disease risk factors included; diabetes (n = 202, 100%), obesity (n = 107; 53.0%) and stress (n = 116; 57.4%). Other contributing factors included; low physical activity (n = 179; 88.6%) and being overweight (n = 176; 87.1%). There were statistically significant differences between the number of risk factors and variables including; sex (p < 0.001), age (p < 0.001), the level of knowledge (p < 0.001) and the duration of the disease. Conclusions: Patients with diabetes had many risk factors for the development of cardiovascular disease and their knowledge of their disease was shown to be incomplete. The results indicate the need for more extensive health education in this area in order to reduce the number of risk factors and disease development